This shows the excess male enrolment in secondary education compared with female. Secondary education is after primary education, but not including university or vocational training beyond secondary level. An additional 26 million females would need to be enrolled in secondary education worldwide for no territory to have fewer females enrolled. That number is equal to 2.1% of the world population aged 5 to 15, or 6% of the females population aged 5 to 15 in the territories that would need to increase the number of females enrolled.

Note that in over 100 territories the proportion of girls enrolling in secondary education equals or exceeds the proportion of boys. Unlike primary education, there is considerable variation both ways.

The quote used on this poster, from 15 year old Aisata from Mali, first appeared in a video entitled ‘In developing countries only one girl out of two goes to school’, produced in 2002. A transcription of this video was found at the web address shown below in August 2006:

Column E = Number of males enrolled minus number of females enrolled in secondary education, in millions, in 2002. Total females enrolled in secondary education in millions in 2002 (from source data) was multiplied by 2, then subtracted from the total people enrolled in secondary education in millions in 2002 (from source data). (E = total children enrolled – [total girls enrolled * 2]). If the result was negative, meaning that there were more females than males enrolled in secondary education, zero was recorded. If data was not available, the regional average percentage (Column F) was applied to the local population aged 5 to 15 years.

Column F = Number of males enrolled minus number of females enrolled in secondary education in 2002, as a percentage of the total a population aged 5 to 15 years old in 2002. To calculate this, the difference between male and female enrolment in secondary education (when male enrolment is greater), in millions, 2002 (Column E), is divided by the population aged 5 to 15 in millions, 2002 (Column G), and then multiplied by 100 to make a percentage. (F = 100 * E / G). The theoretical maximum, if no females enrol in secondary education is 50%. This assumes equal numbers of each sex.

Column G = Population aged 5 to 15 in millions, 2002. See the technical notes for ‘Female Youth Unemployed’ for the sources of this data (145).